Which players should the Impact select?

Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft provides the Montreal Impact a chance to build the foundation for its MLS roster, and the club will have some decisions to make based on how much it wants to spend and which direction it wants to go off the bat.

Designated Players Julian de Guzman, Andres Mendoza, Mustapha Jarju, Branko Boskovic, Frank Rost, Milton Caraglio, Omar Bravo and Jeferson are all free for the taking (although Rost is likely to return to Germany after a few-month stay with New York), giving the Impact the option to make a major investment immediately.

According to The Oregonian, the Portland Timbers have a deal in place with the Impact to not have any players taken, stemming back to the Timbers agreeing to loan Ryan Pore to Montreal during this past season. That leaves 17 other teams to sweat out the draft process, in which a team can lose no more than one player.

Which players do you think the Impact should take? Should they go for any of the high-priced talent available? Whom do you expect to be selected?

I guess it always depends on whether they’re going to select players to use, or players to trade. Mock expansion drafts wholly dependent upon assumption of players to stick around….TFC and Vancouver (the other Canadian sides) did the opposite, and I think it hurt them. Some very good talent in the draft, really depends on what they want to do but for me the absolute must selects include…

Which is one of the reasons Houston didn’t bother to protect him! I don’t think he’s selected in any case, he has a significant salary, he’s getting old, and plans on retiring after one year. If Montreal selects such a player when there is so much young cheap talent available, their front office should be fired.

I wouldn’t be so surprised if Houston loses Cruz. He’s a workhorse on the field and fits well in the Dynamo system, but tends to underperform and is in danger of becoming dead weight during the offseason.

I think the right attitude to have about expansion drafts is that you want players who are cheap and young. Some players you pick b/c you think that in 2-3 years they might be a real solid MLS player. But you don’t want to pick anyone with big salaries, injury histories, age. It’s also worth taking a flier on a player who might be headed to Europe.

But in this day and age in MLS, with the cap being what it is, multiple DP slots, you do NOT build your team via the expansion draft. You get maybe 2 starters (your first year), a couple of guys who might contribute in year 2 or 3, maybe a player you can trade to another team for a draft pick or allocation money.

It’s still pretty tough first year in. You really do need some experienced players, and you can’t do it all with 3 DPs (if one even goes for that first campaign). Probably I’d think in pairs (one for now, one for later), and try to stick with quality in the front and back of the park–you might not play pretty through the MF, but you wouldn’t get lit up and you can steal points on the counter.

What a great sign for the talent pool of the league that there are so many good players available in the expansion draft, compared to the ones from just a couple years ago. The Impact really have no excuse to not be a playoff team right out of the gate.

all i know is if they don’t pick Robbie Russell, Andy Williams, Ned Grabavoy, or Paulo Jr. from RSL they are in outer space. As a fan of the league I love the mentality and style Salt Lake have had over the last few years. Simply outstanding. Picking anyone from Salt Lake gives you someone who’s played for future national team coach Jason Kreis

There aren’t many soccer leagues, none off the top of my head at least, that make you play for a team you have no desire to play for when you are already on another team. How does being forced to go play for a team you have no desire to play for make you a cry baby?

wann, re-read abc’s post. He’s right. Besides, if I were Ching and had the injuries I’ve had over the past several seasons, I wouldn’t want to risk playing in cold weather in the late spring or early fall, either.

I agree, but part of the offset of the cost of signing Bravo is the large draw in the Mexican community. I don’t think (correct me if I’m wrong) Montreal has as large a Mexican community as Kansas City.

Anybody know how much money the owners are willing to spend? We know that teams make their decisions on who to leave unprotected partially based on financial concerns; No doubt the Impact will do the same in choosing their squad. Given that goal scorers in this league are hard to come by, I’d expect that they’ll splurge in this area, probably on a DP. I’d love for them to take Freddy Adu, though, and give him the keys. Once and for all we could find out what he could be, or what he’s never going to be. Either way, it would make me happy to know.

I too would like to see this approach. If he is a bust then you let him go at the end of the season. Low risk/high reward. Also i fthey were able to secure a top quality DP striker who would have the CLOUT to say “GIVE ME THE DAMN BALL” he would have to give it up or risk further damaging his rep.

It’s a little goofy when I’m supposed to honor his desire to be in Houston when their listing of him as available is at least nominal betrayal/lack of reciprocity. If you choose to game the system you risk the consequences. Buy the ticket take the ride.

The “next-level” analysis would be that there still remains room for bluffing and calling in this card game, and Montreal can still draft him knowing they’ll force Houston to compensate them for “return of poster boy.” In that sense this pressures Houston while it threatens Montreal….Houston likes to play hardball but if Ching says he’ll retire if stuck in Montreal, lot of pressure on Houston to do a deal if he gets drafted.

In fact, it’s interesting to consider whether it starts to get a little JP Angel-like where you can push the leverage based on desperation.

First, in this economy, if you have a house that’s worth $200k or more, in most areas there’s no guarantee it sells fast. That’s a HUGE issue.

Second, he’s not going to play much longer–maybe a year or two. Which means…if your spouse has a good job, it may mean that you’re REDUCING your financial security by continuing to play and move to Montreal.

Third, the Canadians are serious about work permits. Again, if you’ve got a spouse with a job, she may not be able to work legally in Canada. It happened to Richard Mulrooney’s wife.

Like Newcastle, they should go shopping in France. And not just because it’s Montreal, France has the cheapest players of the big give leagues by far, a big reason why Newcastle is doing so well this year.